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Diavolo Dance Theater

Fans of extreme action choreographer Elizabeth Streb need to put Diavolo in their date books. This emerging Los Angeles acrobatic dance company pits its exquisitely trained dancers-gymnasts-actors against the laws of physics and gravity in works that merge modern dance with cirque daredevil moves on oversized, mobile sets. Performers explore, traverse, reconfigure—and more than occasionally leap from—a modular two-story cube to music by John Adams in Fearful Symmetries, before Trajectoire explores just how far they can take a reeling, semicircular set piece whose look suggests what might happen if tony Norwegian designers got hold of that pirate ship ride at the state fair. The show promises spills, thrills and bodies somehow making art out of forces much greater than they are. Don't forget the popcorn. Excerpts of both pieces are on YouTube. —Byron Woods